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by rsa_27



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Family Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 13:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2470652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsa_27/pseuds/rsa_27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma decides the Charming family needs a bigger home and finds a way to thank Hook for giving up the Jolly Roger for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> This was just an idea that stuck in my head and I had to write it down.  
> First time writing, so it's probably not very good

      Emma returned from the sheriff’s station to her parents’ extremely crowded loft. The loft was already small and with the addition of the baby, the cramped space just wasn’t working for them anymore. Baby blankets, bottles, stroller, toys and pacifiers covered the apartment, and baby noises and cries were a constant part of their day. And now that Elsa was staying with them till Anna was found, Emma had to give up her bedroom. An apartment for 2 people could not house 6 people…. Well, 7 really…

            Hook had been staying over far more often than Emma would care to admit. Ever since the day she almost froze to death, he had been lingering around, never taking his eyes off of her. He was concerned with her safety, and she appreciated that, but she was a grown woman, she was the Savior, she could take care of herself.

            Emma walked over to couch and plopped down with a long sigh. She was exhausted. There was never a calm moment in this town; she worked all day and sometimes all night. The loft was eerily quiet. Everyone was down at Granny’s, and Emma welcomed the silence. She took her boots off and put her feet up on the coffee table, on top of a newspaper. Then she noticed the ad circled in red.

            She picked up the paper and saw Henry’s writing: “Mom, you should go look at this place.” It always amazed Emma how perceptive the kid was. He knew she was feeling cramped in the loft and started looking for a place of their own. The apartment he had picked out was a nice 2-bedroom place, big enough for the two of them. But the ad below it caught her attention….

            “It’s perfect”, she said to herself.

            The next morning, Emma left early and didn’t tell anyone of her plans. She had cut out the ad from the paper and decided she wanted a look at the place. It wasn’t too far from the sheriff’s station, so she’d have enough time to get back before David got to work and started worrying about her.

            She got to the place and was happily surprised with what she saw. It was more than she had imagined from the brief description in the ad. It was a beautiful house, majestic, like a mini castle. She walked in, already knowing she had found the right place for her family to grow in. The house had 5 bedrooms to accommodate her, Henry, her parents, her brother, and their royal guest. She walked through the bedrooms imagining little Neal’s nursery, Henry’s room filled with books…

            She walked into the room that would be hers and saw the view from the window: the water. Their backyard would be the ocean, and she knew the pirate would love that.

_Hook… I need to do something to thank him…_

            She still hadn’t dealt with the fact that Hook had given up his ship for her. The gesture was too grand, too beautiful, too full of love, and it overwhelmed her. A simple thank you would never be enough, but as she looked out to the water, Emma had an idea. It was a crazy idea, one she didn’t even know she could accomplish… at least not by herself.

            She noticed the time and realized she had to get back to town. She would start planning her surprise tonight and she knew just who could help her.

            That night, when she and David got home, Henry was sprawled on the couch watching TV. Regina had just dropped him off, but she was still in the kitchen, helping Snow with the baby bottles.

            “Hey kid, can I talk to you for a second?” Henry immediately perked up, noticing the secretive tone in his mother’s voice.

            “Yeah, what’s on your mind?”

            “Well, I found this place… and I think it’s perfect for us, but we need to keep it secret until I buy it. I wanna surprise Mom and Dad.”

            “Really?? When can I see it??” Henry’s face beamed with happiness and giddy excitement, making Emma chuckle.

            “Calm down, kid. We need to keep it secret, remember? I can take you there tomorrow but I’m gonna need your help with something else too.”

            “A new house AND a secret operation? I’m in!”  

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma and Henry headed over to the house the next day. The smile on the kid’s face when he saw the house was just as wide as Emma’s had been the day before. Henry took off running from the yellow bug and into the house.

Henry ran from room to room, taking in the whole thing, the smile never leaving his face. “Mom! This is amazing! It will be like we’re in the Enchanted Forest, living in a castle!”

“I thought you might like it”, said Emma, happy to see how excited her son was about their new home, “but we should go to the backyard, that’s where I need your help.”

She took Henry out the back door and towards the water’s edge. They sat down on the boat dock and she told him about what Hook had done for her, for Henry, for their family. Henry listened patiently, and a look of surprised appeared on his face, only to be replaced by a smile.

Emma was confused, “what are you smiling at, kid?”

“I knew he would become a hero”, he replied in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone, “so what are we gonna do for him?”

 “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I thought…maybe we should get him a new ship…”

“How exactly will we do that?”

“Magic. We’ll build one.”

Henry looked at her in disbelief. “You want to build a ship?”

“Yeah, wanna help design it?”

“Of course I do! But this operation needs a name…” They sat thinking for a moment until Henry burst out with “Operation Mermaid!”

“Okay, Mermaid it is. Start drawing an amazing ship and when you’re ready with it, we’ll start coming here at night to build it…somehow… not sure I can do this, really.”

“Mom, you’re the Savior princess. You broke a curse, battled Peter Pan, the Wicked Witch, and a giant snowman. I think building a ship will probably be the easiest thing you’ve ever done.”

            Emma smiled at her son. With his help, she could do anything. If he believed in her, then she should too. _When did the kid get so wise?_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~_

            It took Henry one day to design the ship. He came in the sheriff’s station, holding blueprints. When she took the paper from his hand, she saw it had been sealed...with wax… with a mermaid image…

            “Where did you get the sealing wax and a mermaid stamp?” she asked, a little confused and impressed at the same time.

            “Having Mr. Gold for a grandfather has many perks. I thought it would be a nice touch” Henry replied with a smile.

            Emma laughed and broke the seal. The ship looked beautiful. Henry hadn’t left out a single detail. It was a large ship, bigger than the _Jolly Roger_ had been, and it was also a lighter color. The hull was a dark cherry wood, with white detailing running down the sides. The dark and light didn’t clash; they complimented each other gracefully.

“I thought a completely black ship, with black pirate sails, wasn’t fitting for a Storybrooke hero. So I added the white. It will stand out in the water” said Henry, proud of his design.

Emma started building that night, with Henry overseeing her work, encouraging her when she faltered. It was every bit as hard as she imagined it would be; she didn’t have complete control of her magic yet and it left her exhausted by the end of each night. She knew Gold or Regina could probably do this with a flick of their wrists, but she was okay with all the work she was putting into it. It was good practice for her, and it would make the gift that much more special.

The ship was done a day after she signed the papers for the house. It was time to reveal her surprise to her parents and to her captain.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

            She gathered her parents, Elsa, and Hook in the living room of the loft. She told them she had somewhere to take them and that Henry was waiting there for them. Snow gave her a suspicious look and before she could say something, Emma said “Be patient, please.”

            Henry was standing at the door of the house when they arrived, smiling from ear to ear. Emma joined him, facing her confused family. Henry took her hand and said: “Welcome to Charming Manor”.

            Emma looked at him and said, laughing, “I hadn’t realized you named the house.”

            Snow, holding baby Neal, walked up to Emma, with a smile forming in her lips. “Emma, did you really buy a house?”

            “The loft was too small for us, and Henry and I were thinking about moving out anyway. But an apartment didn’t seem right. We were separated for so long, it’s time for us to start living like a real family. We can’t have a castle like we would in the Enchanted Forest, but this house feels so much like a castle, I thought it was perfect for us. So yes, I bought us a house, with plenty of rooms and space for all of us, and our guest.”

            David and Snow embraced their daughter, with tears in their eyes. Emma looked up and saw Elsa, looking around the house, happy to be included. Hook was leaning on Emma’s bug, not a single hint of expression on his face. Emma broke out of her parents’ hug and told them Henry would take them on a tour of the house.

            “Captain, you come with me,” she said, “I have something to show you in the back.”

            “Swan, you don’t need excuses to get me alone, you know.” He smirked at her, that little flirty smirk that made her face light up and the butterflies go crazy.

            “Shut up and follow me.”

            When he saw the water, he smiled, like she knew he would. “Is this what you wanted to show me? The ocean view is pretty breathtaking.”

            “No, there’s something more”, she replied, taking his hand into hers, and raising her right hand up and waving it in front of them. As she moved her hand, her invisibility spell broke, revealing the ship in all its glory, white sails raised, the water shining around it. She looked at Hook and saw that his jaw had dropped. He was completely speechless.

            “She’s all yours, Captain.”

            He squeezed her hand. “You can’t be serious. Where did you get a ship like that, Swan?”

            She smiled shyly, looking at her feet, and then back at him. “I build it. With magic. Henry designed it.”

            “Emma… She’s absolutely beautiful… You didn’t have to do that…”

            “I owed you a new ship, Killian”— his heart skipped a beat when he heard his name— “for everything you’ve done for me. She needs a name though. We thought we’d leave that up to you.”

            “You know, she looks like you. Like royalty. A beautiful white swan in the water… Aye, that’s what I’ll name her: _Swan Princess_ ”

            Emma laughed, “You know that’s the name of a kid’s movie right?”

            “I didn’t know they had made a movie about you, princess. You need to show it to me on that Netflix thing you mentioned.”

            Emma struggled to reply through her laughter. “Well, if you’re sure about it then….” she waved her hand again, and ornate letters started to appear on the ship’s hull, “the _Swan Princess_ it is.”

            Emma turned towards the house but he pulled her back and kissed her. It wasn’t a desperate, heated kiss like the one back in Neverland. It was pure and gentle, as if he had poured all the love he had for her into one special moment. “Emma, thank you. You’ve given me a home again.”

            “Well… hopefully she’s not your only home… I have my own room upstairs, but I would love a roommate… at night…” She tried to imitate his coy smile, the way he scratched behind his ear and then touched his lips when he was flirting with her. He couldn’t hold his smile, a genuine smile that made him look like a little boy, happy and carefree.

            “I get a ship, and you, my swan, get a pirate to call your own and proper home.”   

            The word rang in her ears.

She looked up and saw her parents and Henry, standing in the balcony of the master bedroom, looking out at _Swan_. Henry was holding baby Neal and Snow placed a gentle kiss on top of her grandson’s head. She felt Killian come closer and put an arm around her waist.

            _Home… I finally found home…_

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it! Please leave me a comment, some constructive criticism would really be appreciated!   
> And if you have an idea you'd like to see written, let me know! My muse needs a little push sometimes :)


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